New York Department of Environmental Conservation: 58 hydrofracking permits pending

Six people have been working four hours a day at the state Department of Environmental Conservation, logging thousands of comments about high-volume natural gas drilling, or hydrofracking.

"We’re finishing up the transcribing and moving into the technical review," agency spokeswoman Maureen Wren said.

Hydrofracking involves shooting millions of gallons of water, chemicals and sand into wells to break up underground shale rock and create microscopic pathways for natural gas to escape.

The DEC has spent the past several months collecting and reviewing input on an 809-page draft document that outlines safety measures and mitigation standards gas companies will have to follow to receive drilling permits.

Even before the process has been approved, gas and oil companies already have filed 58 permit applications with the DEC, Wren said. Those will be reviewed once the state approves high-volume fracking, she said.

Wren said the DEC hasn’t set a date for releasing their final regulations and green-lighting the process. But anti-fracking advocates have said elected officials told them drilling could start as early as summer.

In other fracking news, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced it will begin a study to determine the impacts of gas drilling on human health, groundwater and the environment.

Environmental advocates worry that drilling could pollute groundwater and private wells and leave municipalities with millions of gallons of wastewater and no place to treat it. Oil and gas officials say there has never been a documented case of hydrofracking contaminating water supplies.